Deeper into the project I turned my camera away from the artists and pioneers and focused on newcomers and their fans. There I noticed less fusion and more appropriation. The distinction between what I was capturing on African soil and what is seen on the average hip-hop music program on MTV or BET was fading. With increased English rhyming there corresponded an appropriation of American and European fashion. Rather than merging local culture with pop in their stage shows, many artists went straight for the American Rap video screenplay.

This lead me to investigate whether hip-life was in fact a fusion between American Hip-hop and Ghanaian High life, or if it was simply a way for young people to counter the undesirable images typically portrayed of their homeland. This would explain why they adopted a style more like their American counterparts complete with two-way pagers, baggie jeans, and doo rags. Was this hip-hop coming full circle, or was Western imperialism rearing its ugly head in a very complex way?

And what about the economics of it all? What about the fact that young people come out in scores to support Ghanaian superstars and street vendors sell Buk Bak and Obrafour right along side Biggie and JZ, which was not the case ten years ago? Could this boost in local music sales be the ultimate purpose?

Once I returned to the states, I took a moment to look at these images from various angles. First, I realized that there wasn't a stationary way to view what I was documenting; I simply had to throw the images onto a round-table and play musical chairs. Depending on which chair I sat in, a different perspective emerged. In one seat I saw that young Ghanaians are trading their culture for blingy images promoted and exploited by North American record executives. In another seat, hip-hop appears woven from African thread. Therefore it makes sense that a native African identifies with and participates in hip-hop’s music and lifestyle. Yet from the next chair it seems that regardless of the connection (or lack of connection) between Hip Hop, Hip Life, mother Africa, and western imperialism, it is rare but pleasant that young Ghanaians are listening to and supporting a cultural product produced on native soil. Ultimately I sat in a chair that had previously been placed at the Spanish-speaking and West Indian hip-hop table and from there where I didn't see anything new.

So now I'm throwing these images on the table for others to View as the first series of images of a project I intend to expand. I encourage onlookers to take time to switch chairs as well, to see these images and the phenomena they represent from every angle, to consider the complexity of Hip Hop and African Hip Life, which now seems to have come full circle.